As India’s 13th President enters Rashtrapati Bhavan next week, the comparisons between President Kalam and the new incumbent would be too marked for India as a whole to ignore. Also would be singularly marked and noted by the people of India would be the tragic reality that the present political dispensation in India is out of sync with the political sentiments of India-at-large.

In another week’s time India’s 13th President would assume the much exalted and august office of the President of India. The number 13 is normally considered unlucky and inauspicious. In a strange twist of political and dramatic irony the 13th President of India, the Congress Party’s compromise presidential candidate Smt Pratibha Patil would be entering Rashtrapati Bhavan in the most inauspicious of circumstances. For the first time in the history of independent India the presidential candidate would not be distinguished by high intellectual and moral standing but more distinguished by unresolved allegations of political malfeasance.

In a disgusting display of political contempt for the Indian peoples wish and sentiment that President Kalam should continue for a second term in office or should he so decline then another eminent non-political distinguished Indian be unanimously elected as President of India, the Congress President, the Congress Prime Minister and the Leftist Parties contemptuously foisted a compromise candidate to be the President of India. It was political arrogance of numbers at their command that they settled for a mediocre candidate undistinguished intellectually and not commanding wide respect in India as a whole.

The Congress-Left claim that in the 60th year of India’s independence they have given India a woman President is a dubious assertion to camouflage their real intention. If that was their noble intention then why did the Congress-Left not announce her candidature at the outset? Why after weeks of haggling and discarding more worthier Congressmen? Why was public sentiment ignored for continuance of President Kalam when there is no Constitutional bar against a second term? Where did the Congress-Left penchant for advancing Indian Muslims in high political office to please vote banks disappear in the case of President Kalam? Or is it that this Indian Muslim President was too much of an Indian Nationalist at heart to serve Congress-Left narrow political agendas?

The Congress Party could have offered many other worthy alternatives but the end aim of both the Congress President and the Leftist Parties was to have a pliant President of unquestionable political loyalty to the dynasty who could ensure their return to office in 2009 General Elections when the electoral mandate is likely to be even more fragmented.

The run-up to the presidential elections provided Indians with the display of disgusting political muck that pervades the Indian political scene. As it is there is a growing disrespect for the Indian politicians in India’s middle class and a disillusionment in other Indians with this tribe due to the tainted composition of the entire governing political dispensation in New Delhi.

But what went on display in the presidential elections was the contempt for the Indian people at large. By ignoring the Indian peoples’ popular political sentiment, both the Congress Party and the Communist Parties demonstrated that after winning elections with dubious mandates they had scant respect for Indian public opinion. If only India had a national referendum system for presidential elections these unscrupulous politicians would have got their answer.

India –at-large today stands dejected at the thought of whom all they have elected and calls for change of the electoral process of selecting the President are likely to increase.

Unnerved by the millions of SMS messages clogging the Internet supporting President Kalam or another distinguished non-political Indian as President ,senior Congress leaders and Leftists leaders retorted that people should know that Presidents are not elected by SMSs but by the political elected representatives of India. Alas, if they only knew what respect they enjoy within India and were conscious that but for India’s distorted electoral arithmetic of Indian Muslim vote banks and OBC vote banks none of them would have even climbed the steps of Parliament House.

President Kalam is a “Bharat Ratna” in the most true sense of the word. A man of impeccable honesty and integrity, he is a gifted intellectual, and he is a distinguished scientist who provided the sinews of India’s military power in the form of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that have propelled India to the big league of global players. Above all he is visionary thinker who has been imbued with a missionary zeal for making India a great power and a noble country with strong political and moral principles.

The Congress President, the Congress Prime Minister and their Communist Parties alliance leaders stand puny and stunted in comparison to President Kalam’s illustrious achievements. If they settled for a political nobody as India’s next President it was because as India’s President, President Kalam had obstructed constitutional improprieties by the present Government and particularly his return of the Office of Profits Bill amendment which sought to accord ex-post-facto sanction to the disqualification of the Congress President and a sizeable number of Communist MPs including the Speaker of the Indian Parliament.

To re-emphasize once again ... As India’s 13th President enters Rashtrapati Bhavan next week, the comparisons between President Kalam and the new incumbent would be too marked for India as a whole to ignore. Also would be singularly marked and noted by the people of India would be the tragic reality that the present political dispensation in India is out of sync with the political sentiments of India-at-large.

President Kalam would be long remembered in the history of independent India not only for his illustrious pre-eminence but for the distinction of truly being India’s “Peoples President”. He provided a refreshing change from the abysmal depths to which India’s polity has fallen into. He entered Rashtrapati Bhavan with two suitcases and on July 25th 2007 he would leave the presidential mansion with the two suitcases he entered with.

India would miss this noble man as President who set exemplary standards for India’s puny politicians. Probably the stark comparison that he provided in the nobility of purpose and deed as India’s President compared to the politicians unnerved them and particularly the Congress Party and the Communists.

But yet in a different sense India-at-large would also be happy that this noble man has waded away from the disgusting political muck that pervades India’s political set-up in New Delhi. Free from the constitutional limitations of the office he held India expects that he would be more strident in providing a noble vision of India’s future and a stark reminder to India’s polity as what nobility of purpose and vision is all about when it comes to leadership.